Spanish unemployment rose for the first time in five months in August – as happens every year as the tourism season ends.

The country has enjoyed a record summer for holiday visitors, which has helped the Spanish economy shrug off a prolonged period of political uncertainty, with two inconclusive elections in the past eight months.

Compared with July the jobless number rose by 0.39 percent, or 14,435 people, leaving 3.7 million out of work.

Increases in unemployment are common in Spain in August, as factories reduce activity in what is the peak holiday season.

Hotels and restaurants, meanwhile, continued to create jobs last month though the services sector as a whole laid off staff, the Labour Ministry said.